“You know that feeling when someone you were afraid of suddenly becomes very small? That is what this song sounds like: events and people not holding power over you anymore because you reclaimed it. You’re yours now baby. Let this be our fierce anthem,” Dutch-Iraqi artist Naaz declares.
As you might have guessed, “Sad Violins” sounds anything but sad with its loose-jointed 90s R&B cadence, peppered with lush string and synths arrangements. Above all, the track embodies a rally against disenchantment; the melancholic beats are present, but sound expired when held against a joyous, bright backdrop.
The single is accompanied by a vibrant self-directed music video. “(The video) not only processes my liberating experience, but was also one itself, being the first music video that I ever directed all by myself. Made independent, with a team of only my chosen family. It is filmed through the lens of an angry eye, trying to overpower me but failing as I sing fiercely back into it. I let the sad violins narrate the darkness out of my life, the birds are chirping again. The crickets are singing. I am a woman of the world, no borders will ever limit me.”
Naaz made of point of each person in the video wearing their own traditional garment. “We want to offer MENA ((Middle Eastern & North African) people this grandiose feeling of recognition, and others a chance to admire us in our truest form. MENA is more than war, oppression, violence. We are artists, musicians, models, cooks, whatever! We can be anything you can be.”
Watch the video here and find “Sad Violins” on streaming services.
